A Dream is Half a Prophecy
A dream is half a prophecy.
Can you imagine if that were true? If, simply by dreaming something you were already half way there to making it true? And not just true – a prophecy. A truth so fated that it was destined to happen even before you dreamed it; even, likely, before you were born.
I’m not just talking about the epic, changing the course of humanity kind of dreams now – I’m talking about the small ones, the really personal, self-centered (not necessarily selfish), ones too. The relationship, the career, the house, the car, and the vacation home in Cuba, as well as the one where you seamlessly resolve the country’s ludicrous healthcare system. All of them. What if it were true that simply having the dream went 50% of the way to making it fate?
‘Impossible.’ you say. Sure, fine – but I don’t actually care right now. We think about a lot of things that are ‘impossible,’ all the time: being Mrs. Brad Pitt; sexual exploits with Penthouse’s twins of the year; traveling through wormholes in the fabric of space-time. The fact that it isn’t possible hasn’t stopped us from thinking – even ruminating, obsessing, or indulging in the thought(s) before, so why exactly start now, with this?
We let ourselves think, feel and fantasize about ‘impossible’ things because, hopefully, it feels good. And there are few thoughts that feel as good as this: a dream is half a prophecy.
If you’re still thinking: ‘That just feels stupid.’, you haven’t really stepped into fantasy-land, the land where all things are possible – if only for a moment. You have to engage your suspension of disbelief – the same way you would in indulging the Xena Princess Warrior fantasy (being her, or being with her). Imagining winning the lottery doesn’t feel stupid – though believing or thinking it may. Imagining winning feels pretty damn good.
I’m not asking you to believe or to think that a dream is half a prophecy. Not yet anyway, not here. I’m asking you to imagine what it would be like if it were true – and what you would feel like if it was true.
How far do you think winning the lottery would get you to fulfilling all your needs, desires and dreams – the 500 kagillion mega-lottery one? 90%? 80%? Let’s call it 50%. Obviously because it serves my purpose, but also because, though you might be able to buy whatever you want, and maybe 50% of whomever you want, there are still all those other dreams which don’t involve money, or can’t be bought. So if a dream were half a prophecy – you’d be at least as close to having them come true as winning the kagillion dollar lottery. And if you’ve ever imagined winning the lottery, and I mean really ‘winning it big’, you’ve experienced the overwhelming rush of freedom it brings. The enormous freedom that winning the lottery would bring – even if you pissed away the money so fast that it flew by in an instant.
If a dream was half a prophecy, we’d be equally liberated and empowered. Only, it’d always be true; we couldn’t piss our power away. But there is more to this fantasy. There is the uncanny, charmed quality of life that comes with dreaming your desires into being that isn’t there with simply paying for them all.
A dream is half a prophecy. If that were true, I’d be half way to having all of my dreams come true. And the point about the lottery is that half way is a long way. When we think of visionaries, or think of ourselves as visionaries, half way seems like nothing. How many times have we heard that the greatest inventions and feats of mankind began as an idea, a thought, a dream? And how much weight have we actually given to this part of the process? – How much weight have their creators given them?
What, do you think, would have been more valuable to Martin Luther King, Jr. to fulfilling his dream than the dream itself? How far do you think he could have gotten without it? How far do you think he’d have gotten if it happened to leave him?
I know that simply having a dream doesn’t feel like a lot, but maybe we should give it more credit. I know that the action part appears to be the most productive part, but maybe that’s not actually so. I know that we’ve come to think that the hard things, the ones that cause you sweat, pain and suffering, are the really valuable ones – pretty much necessarily. But I’m not sure that is true either.
What if the easiest part – which does not necessarily mean that it is easy – was the most productive part? The only part that alone could get you 50% of the way there – to fated. What if?
I like it. You?